Talk:Infiltrator Guide (Mass Effect 3)
"Kuwashii Visor and Armax Arsenal shoulders and arms for a total bonus of 35% to damage and an additional 30% to headshots." How are these bonuses calculated towards the end-result? Are these added together for a total bonus of 65% (for headshots) or is the 35% damage bonus calculated first, followed by an additional 30% bonus? Examples: Base damage = 100 Situation A: Bonuses stack. 100 + 35% = 135 damage 135 + 30% = 175.5 damage Situation B: Bonuses added together prior to damage calculation. 100 + 65% = 165 damage Going on, how are additional bonuses from weapon mods calculated? Situation A: Everything stacks. (After armour bonuses) 175.5 damage. (After Extended Barrel) 175.5 damage + 25% = 219.375 damage (After Concentration Mod) 219.375 + 15% = 252.28 Situation B: All bonuses added together = 35% + 30% + 25% + 15% = 105% 100 + 105% = 205 damage Situation A: Everything stacks. (After armour bonuses) 175.5 damage. (After Extended Barrel) 175.5 damage + 25% = 219.375 damage (After Concentration Mod) 219.375 + 15% = 252.28 + Tact. Cloak bonuses (After "regular" damage bonus) 252.28 + 80% = 454.104 damage (After sniper rifle damage bonus) 454.104 + 40% = 635 damage Situation B: All bonuses added together = 35% + 30% + 25% + 15% + 80% + 40% = 225% 100 + 225% = 325 damage 635 or 325... That is a HUGE difference. --DeLuXo 14:07, March 14, 2012 (UTC) To address the issues above, I tested weapon damage mods and armor on level I pistols using an Engineer build. An Engineer has zero bonuses to ammo and weapon damage in their class skill trees, unless an ammo power is added and ammo capacity bonus taken via the power. An Engineer with no ammo power is a good baseline to see exactly what damage mods and armor pieces actually do. I did this testing in the Citadel Spectre shooting range. What I found is that the actual gun used is the primary consideration when choosing mods. Some guns are overpowered that, unless playing on Insanity, armor pieces and mods may become redundant when a weapon reaches overkill. Other guns are lower power, and can benefit from any or all available mods and armor. An example of overkill was evident to me with the Talon I versus Phalanx I. Without any damage mods on the guns and no damage bonus armor pieces, the Engineer using a Talon I completely wiped out all three targets in one shot (shield target, armored target, and health target). I can conclude that in a low difficulty game setting, using all available mods and armor spec'ed for damage would, on some guns, lead to overkill. By contrast, the Phalanx I has a much lower base damage, adding all possible damage bonuses improves the gun, but it will never equal the Talon and cannot 1 shot the Spectre office targets. Ammo capacity: the size of the magazine can only be increased using the magazine gun mod. Where the base magazine is small, the game rounds down and adds the increase to the total gun capacity. For example, the Talon is described as having "six blocks of ammunition." With no mods or ammo armor pieces, the base is 24/4, but if you touch an ammo clip you get 25/4, 4 shots in the magazine. The gun will always show 24/4 at the start of a combat situation, and any increase is applied when touching an ammo clip. Adding the 80% magazine gives 27/7. The Kestral helmet alone gives 27/4, Kestral plus 1 Armax piece (10%) is 30/4 and with the magazine mod 30/7. Thus where the magazine base is so small that 80% < 1, the increase shows in the total gun rounds and the game rounds the magazine total down. Damage: the Spectre targets do not distinguish head shots. Damage is a bit harder to quantify without access to the game algorithm. Also, enemy points are always visually represented by 10 blocks, regardless of the total points of the mob. Actual damage is probably a point value, but visually once the blocks are gone the mob is dead. You can't actually see Overkill in point value. Applying damage armor pieces and mods, the visual bars appear to show a consistent percentage. For example, the Phalanx I with a 25% total damage bonus takes off one bar. This would mean that the increased damage on the first shot does not equal more than 1 bar, but the game counts the points because the second shot takes off two bars. I found that armor and mods take the gun's base damage into account. 15% armor piece plus a 10% armor piece means you have a 25% bonus on the gun's base damage. So, armor, mods and ammo bonuses are calculated each off the base gun damage. Thus, when considering how much of an effect class bonuses and mods give you, a fresh calculation has to be done for EACH GUN. I am certain that multiplayer players will bear this out, they have worked out how much more damage they get from "best" guns compared to ordinary guns. Also, DLC weapons sold on the marketplace are advertised and expected to do more damage overall. The question is, what consistent advice can we give for class builds? The truth is that on Insanity applying every possible damage mod will not lead to overkill with most guns, and will likely be additive. On lower difficulties, however, with powerful guns a player can likely reach overkill and using all the possible damage bonuses will be redundant for many guns. Another consideration is what greater benefit a class might get from boosting power damage and cool down, rather than just gun damage? Also, player skill is an issue to consider: what good is there having all possible headshot bonuses if the player has poor aiming skill? My opinion is that for Infiltrator, maximizing the Cloak class skill and weapon damage is always good advice. Other choices have more to do with the player skill and the gun being used, but players themselves can work all that out. For Re-Importing Play-through Players: HINT Fully leveled up, that is, every single mod and armor and weapon of every sort, two or three full careers worth of investment maybe, 60 rank clearly, all armory "X" or "V" (strangely, the game disallows me to upgrade my Predator however?), one can play the Infiltrator with the Javelin X with Disruptor, Armor-Piercing or Warp Ammo (bonus) and the Acolyte X (no deduction to cooldown) and destroy *everything* as if replaying one's first time, it's amazing... I one-shot what I am told what is not one-shot destructible on Insanity - Brutes, Ravagers fall literally in ONE SHOT, whether Disruptor or Warp or Armor-Penetrating... The Harvester dragon, ATLAS Mech (even here only if the human cranium is missed ineptly before enemy soldier entering, or through the weak "canopy" the shot is poor) and the Banshee are the sole exceptions here, amazing - unless you count the silly Collectors in Armax. I need to learn how to record this stuff. I am also certain I took down a Banshee with a very carefully aimed head shot once, but I won't say it's empirical like the others - Ravagers, Marauders, Phantoms, Nemeses, etc. all fall in ONE SHOT. No incendiary-triple-explode exploit silliness. No tricks, no illegal game programming duplicity, no mendacity here. The Javelin X with Conc. Mod. V + Thermal Clip V and the Acolyte X w/Heavy Barrel V and the Lightweight-Materials V Mod, pure puissance. The Cooldown is barely below 200 percent, even without armor customization. Honestly, scientifically, probably the most ideal you can get in the game with any type or class...